The original “Rescuers” theme

As previously reported, Huston Huddleston has been posting the lost songs composed and demos recorded by his father, Floyd, primarily for Disney features The Aristocats and The Rescuers. We’ve been linking to many of them on our CB Facebook page. Here’s one of particular note, sung and written by Floyd Huddleston himself, recorded at Disney Studios in Burbank 1974. This was an early version of the theme song of the Rescue Aid Society in The Rescuers.

Floyd’s song and lyrics are really good in this one. It explains more of the origin and story of what started the Rescue Aid Society.

However, I feel like the one theme that the studio chose sounds more like a real pledge. Maybe it’s because I’m more used to hearing it in the movie.

Dan Jeup

I love the story sketches done in bold line and watercolors. I’m pretty certain they were drawn by Joe Rinaldi. His drawings were way up there with Bill Peet’s, and I’ve always felt he was underrated. If they’re not Joe’s, my second guess would be Vance Gerry, another great and lesser known story man. Can anyone confirm who drew them?

huston

I forgot to mention, I also added this ballad from Rescuers on Youtube, which is probably the best song dad ever wrote for Disney, of course cut because it was supposed to be sung by Louis Prima.

In one of the concept art drawings in this video (1:01 to 1:08), the mice actually seem to be helping a grown man escape from somewhere… prison?…

Somehow it made me think of some comments in the other CB post about unused Rescuers songs… in particular this one by Paul Dini… “The prisoner rescued by the mice in the original book was an adult political prisoner, a poet…” – as well as this one by Bud: “I’d have preferred the original plot for the Rescuers, where the mice helped save a poet from a Cuban prison and escaped back to the U.S. under machine gun fire in an exciting boat chase in the Bahamas during a hurricane (there’s lots of great art in the Disney Archives on this one!).”

Prior to this, I never knew that the Disney studio had such a version of The Rescuers in development… but it’s a fascinating thought. So I’m wondering… may that one drawing starting at 1:01 in the above video come from that version of the story?

Nik

I also was very interested in the drawing of the mice helping a man escape from prison. As a kid, I was a big fan of Disney animation and the Rescuers book series (even going as far as to predict that Disney would adapt The Rescuers into an animated movie). In the first Rescuers book, Bernard and Bianca rescue an imprisoned Norwegian poet. The book rescue scene was quite dramatic, with the mice and poet being forced to jump into the raging ocean during a storm in order to escape the prison.

When the first Disney Rescuers film was released, I remember at first being disappointed that it wasn’t about the poet, but Penny and Medusa turned out to be great characters, so I really didn’t mind. The talented Disney artists still managed to capture the essence of the Rescuers books.

Gerard de Souza

Hey, they could still make a another Rescuers like the original book. I enjoyed Rescuers Down-Under more than the first.